Jacob Marr - Country of Liquid Sun
Wednesday, April 15
In 1822, an English traveler Mr.Marr had arrived in our Georgia during, the period or the last ruler of Gurialand as he liked Guria very much he wanted and decided to stay here forever is profession was agronomy and his work would bear fruit en he rich soil or Guria and be beneficial for us. The ruler, Mamia upon seeing the Englishman’s useful advice on the improvement of the economy, suggested several households for him with the relevant estate but Marr, as an honest man with pure conscience, calmly refused it and answered him thus “My conscience and reasonable mind don't allow hawing men like me as slaves. Lam very concerned and recall it with regret that my compatriots Englishmen, shed blood for turning people into slaves in America…” ( Ekvtime Takaishvili, Correspondence)
“…Marr was highly respected throughout Guria and everybody knew him as an honest and useful man. The Kutaisi farm and boulevard were under his care. Based upon his activities, a beautiful garden which, in the course of time, began to look very much like a field, was restored by his efforts. He tried to cultivate plants from other countries which would be useful for us and he spent a lot of time looking for the right soil. We Gurians, cannot forget this man who showed us many examples from the world of agronomy that could be applied in our challenging and sophisticated life and who raised our skills to monitor farming economy. He spent his last old years in Ozurgeti with the Prince Grigol Gurieli. At the age of 95 years, death has taken this useful man away from us. With great respect, he was buried in the grave of his first wife, Fagunda…" (Ekvtime Takaishvili, Correspondence)
“Ekvtime asked me to tell in details everything I knew about Jacob. And I did," Niko Marr wrote. Based upon his notes, we learned that Jacob Patrick Montegue Marr was the son of Jacob. He was also referred to as Yakov Montel. "My father was an old Scotsman and mother was a young Gurian woman..." we read in Niko Marr's autobiography.
The birth of a child to a Scotsman who was about 85 years and a young Gurian woman is one of the legends that is related to Jacob Marr's name and is traced through Niko Marr's autobiography The Marr name has been mentioned in the history of Scotland as a count, dating to 1012, and a baron, from the thirteenth century. Jacob, Niko Marr's father, had none of those titles but still he was referred to as a descendant of a noble family. He was the youngest son in the family and, according to the majoristic system that was observed in England, a father's property went to his oldest son or oldest man the family. Jacob's father kept his oldest son in the family and gave an amount equal to his Share to his younger son, David. Jacob began to travel. Whilst in Spain, ne married a local woman, Fakunda (Fagunda) Antonio. He then learned that foreign traders had great privileges as concerned Russia and the development of its trade. For this reason, he went to Odessa where they had two children, a son, Ivane, and a daughter, Mariam, who was married in Tbllisi and became known as Madam Fabre, directing a girl’s boarding school and teaching foreign languages. In 1871, Madam Fabre moved from Tbilisi to Paris and did not return to Georgia.
Whilst in Odessa, Jacob Marr discovered that Russian and foreign citizens who began a wholesale trade business in Georgia would be granted special privileges based upon the Tsar's Decree of 8 October 12821, as a means of developing trade and industry in Georgia and be exempted from taxes for a period of ten years with their security also being ensured by military protection.
Jacob and his family moved to Tbilisi and began their activities but the police were informed that Jacob Patrick Montegue Marr, the same as Jacob Montel Marr, was selling imported fabrics and as well as seeds. The Head of the Caucasian Staff of Russian Army, Veliaminov, called Marr and prohibited his retail trade whilst warning him that he only had the right to provide wholesale of goods to local traders. Marr did not like the warning and so he moved his family to Guria which was not part of Georgia at that time. The Ruler of Guria, Mamia Gurieli V (1810-1826), gave shelter to Marr for which the grateful English guest of Guria built a beautiful tropical garden for his host which included olive, magnolia, rubber and other exotic trees as well as the Odessa grape variety.
As concerns the Odessa grape, Ekvtime Takaishvili said: "This [grape] is Izabella. Marr himself cultivated it in Odessa and as it was brought to our country from there, it was called "Odessa"...
In Guria, Marr tried to exchange fabrics to local grapes and make wine according to European methods and send it abroad. He cultivated tea plants in Mamia Gurieli's garden and at the estate of Prince Mikheil Eristavi in Gora-Berezhouli near Chokhatauri. "The first successful attempt at the cultivation of tea in Guria belongs to my father," wrote Niko Marr.
Marr reconstructed the house with the help of the government and left his wife Fakunda there whilst he went to Kutaisi and worked as the head of a farm in Choma. The year was 1844 and Vorontsov had been appointed as the Tsar's Governor in Caucasia. Marr knew him from Britain and with Vorontsov's support, he initiated historical activities related to the cultivation, acclimatisation and expanding of sub-tropical crops in West Georgia in which he invested a great deal of time and energy.
On 15 May 1863, Marr, as a participant of the exhibition of 1862, was awarded a bronze medal for his contribution and merits in the development of agriculture in Caucasia alongside a special diploma signed by the Tsar's governor.
Ivane and his sons decided to distribute the inheritance in the village without his father's consent. The elder Marr, offended by the action, insisted to be married again. The noble Sharashidze family, living closely, brought up an orphaned peasant girl of Maghularia origin, Aghati, who was about 24-25 years old at that time and who was divorced but childless. The family was interested in finding subsistence for the young woman and married her off-as if she were a member of the noble Sharashidzes family-to Jacob Marr. As Ekvtime Takaishvili wrote, Marr did not marry Aghati at once. "First he took her as a servant to look after him, and then documented her as a wife," he explained.
In his application of 15 April 1871 in Ozurgeti we read: I, Jacob Marr, am from a noble English family... I work in agriculture in Caucasia. I have a son of seven years, Nikoloz, and I am no longer able to bring him up. Please enroll him in the school at government's expense… The Tsar's governor considered his services to Georgia and endorsed the application to enroll the child in the Kutaisi Boarding School.
After this, Marr lived for only another three years. His merits were properly appreciated and he was buried with great respect. As indicated in Niko Marr's autobiography, however, he and his mother were left without anyone to look after them and were soon thereafter evicted from their home by one of their relatives.
